They Flee From Me That Sometime Did Me Seek
by TheRealSnowWhite
Summary: The space age equivalent of the Mary Celeste, the Columbus, has been abandoned for a thousand years. Only when the Doctor and Amy explore the ship they find, impossibly, a member of the crew - and a ancient monster mystery. Set before The Time of Angels
1. Chapter 1

"Isaiah? You silly boy! You know you're not supposed to go running about the ship!" Ava Regenbogen was worried. The mission worried her, the immense gravitas it had acquired and the consequences it would hold. The effects it would have on her children, Isaiah and Verity, worried her. But mostly she worried about what was happening aboard the ship. It was one of the great cross-space colony vessels, designed to hold everything anybody needed to jumpstart a civilisation. The great belly of the place was an entire wood, trees, soil, animals. Everything they needed to bring old Earth to New Earth. One hundred people had been selected for this mission, an entourage for the gifts they would bring.

But in the past few days, slowly, one by one, people were vanishing. Vanishing from the ship, which held no secrets anymore after the last fifteen years of travel. People were simply… there was no other word but 'vanish'. They just disappeared from existence.

The upcoming corridor was dark; Isaiah must be playing around. No-one came down to this maintenance area, less so since people had started going missing. The air was stagnant, the blackness unending. Ava squinted, and thought she could make out the faint outline of someone or something. "Isaiah? I don't want any of your stupid games anymore. Come out of there!" She trod on something, stumbled, lost her footing. Ava fell heavily onto the floor.

Above her the lights flickered on. The lights blinded her for a second, then her eyes adjusted and she struggled into a sitting position to see what she'd trod on.

One of the crewmates stared up at the ceiling, his eyes dull and blind. Dead. Cold. With such a look of fear frozen upon his face it made Ava's heart stop in dread.

The shadowy figure now turned to her, eyes blazing with supernatural fury, solid gold and full of hatred. For a second, the woman thought she recognised the form but then everything went black, and Ava Regenbogen felt no more.


	2. Chapter 2

The same minute of video, repeated over and over again. A girl, barely older than Amy herself, screaming silently, some frantic message that was cut off suddenly when she started crying, and again, the video would repeat. It was terrifyingly eerie, the girl with fear in her eyes, mouthing an urgent message for what? Help? Rescue?

Then, the Doctor flicked some buttons and typed something away, and then, the sound which he'd described as 'decayed, impossibly decayed' started.

"My name is Verity Kathie Vasanti Lexine Regenbogen, daughter of the scientists Ava and Itai Regenbogen, chief science officers of the colony ship _Columbus_." The girl looked Amy in the eyes then, as if trying to convey her urgency through her projection. She chewed on her bottom lip, as if trying to find the words to say. "Help us!" She screamed, fear thick in her voice. "Everyone is dead! There is something on the ship! People started going missing, then, then, then they just started dropping. Down dead! I'm the only one left and I have to carry on the mission! It is _vital_ that I get to New Earth! Please he-"The video paused, leaving a flickering image of a girl with terror in her eyes, tears building and spilling down her cheeks, the blue eyes burning into the brown of Amy's. A girl her own age, lost somewhere in the depths of space, crying for help, crying from loneliness, crying in grief.

"Are we going to help her?" She tore her view from the flickering image of the girl to the Doctor. Unlike her, he did not stand silently watching the girl replaying her plight. He flew around the console, pushing random buttons, checking the screen, occasionally moving a lever ever-so-slightly.

"Help her? Should I ignore the weeping damsel in distress? Of course not. She is sending this video to every ship that she can possibly find and it has found us so we are going to find her. And I think that if we didn't find her you would quite possibly hurt me." He frowned slightly. "But… the time stamp on this film is impossible. It's hundreds of years old, yet it's transmitting right now. From that big ship. Must be some sort of temporal looping, playing the message over and over until someone turns it off." He beckoned her to the screen, tapped the image of a space ship with one finger, a big ship with a vast drooping belly. It was surrounded by _thousands_ of other space ships; big ones (though nowhere near as big as the colony ship), little ones, colourful ones, dull ones… every example of space ship Amy could think of, there was one.

"Why aren't they helping her? There are so many people there – why aren't they zooming off to the _Columbus_?" Then it dawned on her, the difference between the little ships and the big ship. The _Columbus_ was lit with a thousand shimmering lights. The others around it were dark. No life there. They were riddled with scars, the debris of hundreds of years of space travel, all floating. "None of those ships are moving. It's like someone just cut out all the power. I don't think anyone's on board any of them."

"A space ship graveyard. Something has sapped all the power from each and every one of them. And I'm willing to bet that whatever is doing it is on that ship. The _Columbus_… I know that name. It's important, something bad happened involving _Columbus_… of course!" The Doctor flew around the console, typing rapidly and bringing up a hidden screen. Images streamed through it and settled suddenly on one. The picture was of two scientists, male and female. They were equally grim looking, the woman in particular showing a certain seriousness in her heavyset jaw. They looked decidedly uncomfortable. The caption identified them as Itai Kovács and Ava Rhydderch, chief genetic scientists of something called 'The Rainbow Project'. "The Regenbogen perfection!"

"That was her last name, are those her parents? I can't imagine them as a couple but then again, I lived through Bennifier _and _Jordan and Peter." The two looked completely unlike Verity; she had been small and dark and pretty, whereas these two didn't look fully human. Their eyes were funny, and there was something wrong with their skin. They just looked… _wrong_. Amy couldn't put her finger on what made them so different. A new evolution of humanity, so far beyond Earth and the life she understood.

"No, not her parents…" The Doctor leaned back on the console, arms crossed. He looked infuriatingly smug, almost boyish. "Come on, it's easy. Guess!"

"Er….. oh, I don't know Doctor, just tell me. If they're not her parents, then I don't know what they could be."

The Doctor tsked her loudly, shaking his head at her. "It's so simple Pond! They are her creators."

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**If you like the storyline so far, then please review. If you don't like it so far, then please review! Any comments are welcomed. And uh if you review you get... a one way ticket on the _Columbus_, all expenses paid? No, that doesn't sound very promising. Would you accept cookies and a thank you in my next author's note?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks to Doyle0915 for being my first and only reviewer - you have a ticket aboard the _Columbus_! Everyone else - please, if I'm doing something wrong with my story then please tell me. Can't change it if I don't know! Otherwise, enjoy the ride...**

* * *

Amy paused for a second in surprise, gaping at the Doctor, her mouth wide open. _Creators_? "Is Verity even human? Is she some sort of… robo-girl?"

"No, no she's human. 100% human and that's the key point. You saw Starship UK, well that's not the end of the story. Humanity flees among the stars. You humans start spreading everywhere, living anywhere, breeding with anything, cloning themselves away until there isn't one left with a complete human DNA structure. Well, apart from one but I er, exploded her. Year six billion, Earth explodes. Oh, _big_ revival movement, the loss of the home world so then they find a New Earth and isn't it great? Well, no, they don't want this new human race that they build to be based upon impure genes, so a team of scientists are commissioned to attempt to rebuild the human genome and perfect it. It takes years and years, but eventually they create four practically perfect in everyway children. Two boys, two girls. The Regenbogen perfection. Test-tube children, but brought up believing that there wasn't anything different between them and any other human."

The Doctor began typing away on the typewriter, bringing forth hundreds of pictures, each one seeming to detail the development of four children, always watched over by a team of scientists. They were always alone, every one of them. Verity had been a smiling child, but none of the adults near her ever seemed to touch her or stand close, as if fearful of them infecting her with their impurities. The scientists seemed both proud and fearful of the perfect child they had made. "Verity, the first pure human created, was taken with her 'brother' Isaiah to New Earth, and they were going to be married off to the other two, all nice and perfect, foundation of something new and amazing to sweep away all the years spent muddling along."

The last article flashed on screen. COLUMBUS MISSING. 'The ship carrying one of the first pure humans, Verity and Isaiah Regenbogen, has suddenly vanished. There are no signs to indicate that the crew, specially chosen to accompany the girl and her brother, have made any errs in judgement and lost their way. It is unsure exactly what has happened to the vessel, which had nearly completed its fifteen year journey, but the actions of space pirates have yet to be ruled out'.

"Did anyone ever find the ship? She was rescued right? If she's so important they wouldn't not try to find the ship… its right there, still working, still with her on board, being hunted down by some sort of monster!" Amy wanted to know that this sobbing girl had been found, that someone had helped her, listened to her pleas, helped her with the death of her… creators. Who she called her parents. She'd definitely called herself their 'daughter'. Had she even known she'd begun her life in a laboratory? That her brother was not really her brother? Did she even know what the mission she was sent on entailed?

"The Columbus was found… one _thousand_ years after it initially went missing. No life signs, apart from the animals they were carrying which had been kept alive by the environmental system. No signs of violence, but equally no signs of the crew leaving voluntarily. One, and only one escape pod was missing. No personal belongings had been taken. The space age equivalent of the Mary Celeste. A great and fantastic mystery that no one has ever managed to solve." The Doctor's face, which had been so serious, suddenly broke into an enthusiastic grin. "Until now that is."


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for the alerts and favourites - it's nice to know that some people out there like this story, despite its lack of 11/Amy. I aim to make this something hopefully episode quality, and that you will enjoy the many twists and turns! So review, review, review please. **

**And here's a challenge - the title of this story is the title of a famous poem, by a famous poet which is one of Verity's favourites. Find out the poet. You can also possibly make some sort of guess on the outcome of the plot based upon the poem if you want but I shall give away no secrets.**

**I'm also considering writing a sequel. I know, I know, it's early days, but I've already finished the story and I like Verity. Thoughts plz. **

* * *

The TARDIS landed in the command deck. "This will be where she made the message from. I followed the data stamp precisely to this point. Any remnants left we'll find. Everything's turning up Doctor." A few lights flickered on as they came out, providing a limited light in the gloom of the vessel. The air was stagnant, slightly musty, the place generally feeling neglected and abandoned. Dust was thick upon the floor, with occasional footprints here and there. To Amy's disgust, a large brown rat scuttled by her foot, its' eyes reflecting the light of the torch she carried.

"How long does it take for this level of grime to build up?" The lights weren't as bright now they were aboard; more like emergency lights on a plane than genuine everyday ones. "And please don't start licking the walls." Amy scanned the area, wrinkling her nose at the level of dirt.

The Doctor chose to ignore this, and began scanning with the sonic screwdriver. His air of joviality vanished, a deep frown forming upon his face. Whatever it was saying he wasn't pleased with. "No human habitation signs. Nothing at all. And this is saying that the ship is at least a thousand years old. Running on emergency power. No generator at all. I'll see what I can do." He walked purposefully to a wall where he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away at something. Underneath the grime was a small grubby screen and the Doctor ran the screwdriver over it, opening files and bypassing firewalls. "I'll have the power up in a minute Pond."

Amy wandered down the corridor, peering into the murk of the control deck which was clearly unused and requiring serious cleaning work. Generations of spiders had claimed the varying levels of dials and levers as their home. "This place is filthy...any chance of getting the lights back? All that sonic and no results…"

The Doctor flashed a glare at her. "There are a lot of databases and things on a ship this big." He told her stiffly. "Something turned all the power off, locked it all out." His brow wrinkled in confusion and ran a hand through his hair, ruffling his already messy hair further. "This is impossible. The computer is telling me that the power was turned off _just before_ we landed. There has to be someone on this ship to turn this off. This computer must be wrong!"

Amy rolled her eyes. "Yes, the ship that's been floating around for a thousand years is wrong. It's deliberately trying to prove you wrong and make you into an intergalactic fool." She walked past a small kitchen and continued into the corridor. It felt like she was under the sea, the gloom pressing all around her, as encompassing as water. The smallness of the place was oppressive – the Doctor had said this was a big ship, but all Amy could see were tiny little rooms. Space travel didn't seem glamorous at all. Those crappy sci fi movies they played on TV on bank holidays and Sundays made it seem all whizzing about in bright sparkly space ships with lots of happy, happy people. This ship wasn't happy at all. It was dark and miserable and dirty. A hundred people had lived and died here and Amy couldn't imagine a worse place. There was no personality anywhere, no indications of any of the scientists who had spent fifteen long years aboard. She took a quick look into one of the rooms. It was very basic and bleak, more like a cupboard than an actual room.

The lights came on now, filling the narrow hall with fluorescent lights. That was when Amy noticed the last two doors, which stood alone away from the others at the very end of the corridor. These two were different from the rest. Each had a nameplate and as Amy drew closer she saw that one said 'Isaiah' and the other 'Verity' in a neat copperplate script. As she drew even closer she saw the other difference. Each door had a lock on the outside, a very large lock. She placed her hand on the cool metal, testing the latch. It was a considerable bolt. The two children were locked in their rooms at night. The thought made the hairs on the back of Amy's neck begin to prickle. Why would they have to keep them locked up? What were they doing to them?

She pushed open the door to Verity's room, ignoring something being yelled by the Doctor involving bio-chips and signals. She remembered the scared little girl who was now dead and looked around the room which had been her home. It was slightly bigger than the other bedrooms, and was considerably less filthy than the rest of the ship. Little pictures had been stuck to the walls, making a gigantic collage which took up two walls. A little brown sewing box stood on a desk where the chair had been thrown roughly back, as if in a great hurry. A cello stood in a corner, surrounded by piles of books. '_Ancient_ _Earth music: The early twenty first century_', '_The poets of ancient Earth_' and '_Socio-economical problems resulting in aggression in the twentieth century_' were the books closest to her, and Amy smiled. It seemed so strange that the time in which she lived would become a historical study in the future, a time period which Verity was obviously interested in. She picked up the book on music, flicking through it, laughing out loud when she came to the section on Lady Gaga. Five billion years later and people were still talking about her?

Underneath the music book was a thin white book called 'The Rules'. There was something strangely ominous about the slim volume and Amy picked it up and began reading it.

**On demeanour **

**Children must be quiet and submissive. ****It is not your place to question. ****Obey commands. ****Submit to the authority of the adults around you. ****Children must develop an amiable and cheerful personality. Melancholy will not get you anywhere. ****Do not argue or talk back. ****Always be polite. ****Act appropriate for your gender.**

These were odd rules; they'd been very well read by Verity, perhaps even her brother, but what sort of rules were these to give people? She flipped through, stopping at random headings.

**On activities**

**Children must not be idle.****When you have finished your duties conduct in gender appropriate hobbies.****You must show progress you have made to your parents at the end of each day.**

**On health**

**You will receive health checks twice a week to monitor your development. ****These are obligatory. No exceptions. ****You must follow the specific diet established for you by the medical officer. ****You will receive pills every morning to take with breakfast. ****Proper sleep is essential. You must not get up in the night.**

All this 'gender appropriateness' – she hadn't been far wrong in her estimation of robo-girl. They'd been training them to be perfect to match their genes. All manners and no forthrightness. No personality. They were even supposed to respond to buzzers and bells like little prisoners. It was a life Amy couldn't even begin to imagine. It made her shudder involuntarily. "Subject Verity must respond to the red buzzer." She read out loud and there was a muffled crash from behind her. Turning round, Amy now noticed a small cupboard. Something was in there, something was still alive.

_It's just a rat _she thought, each step towards the cupboard door seeming to take an eternity, her hand reaching out for the knob as if it wasn't really hers, the seconds passing like hours. She gripped the cool metal and turned, the lock clicking gently under her hand. She could hear a small cry from inside, a low sobbing noise. Something was blocking the door. She gave it a more forceful push and there was another crash behind it, louder than the previous one. And a small cry like an animal in pain.

The prickles on the back of her neck rose. "Doctor…" She called out, stepping back. As he ran into the room, shouting at her to leave everything alone, something was still registering on the life scans, the cupboard door opened, emitting a low creak that chilled Amy's blood and stilled her heart.

"Oh thank the Tin Vagabond that you came!" A small little creature ran out like lightning and flew past Amy, throwing itself at the Doctor, wrapping its' arms round his chest tightly. The little thing shook all over from fright, and buried its' face into his chest for comfort.

It was Verity Regenbogen, a girl who should have died hundreds of years before.


	5. Chapter 5

She was smaller than Amy imagined, standing at around five foot. She was distinctly girlish, with a sweet prettiness in her rosy pink cheeks and long chestnut coloured hair. She also had a noticeably fecund look around her, from her round hips and (to Amy's immediate envy) absolutely enormous breasts. Her face was buried into the Doctor's chest and he looked very awkward as currently her eyes were squeezed shut in a mixture of terror and relief, tears of joy falling from between her lids.

"I knew someone would come, I know someone would find me! Please help, there was something on the ship that killed everyone, I ran and hid and then everyone was gone, please help, I have to get to New Earth, I _have_ to, it's _ever_ so important." She repeated this over and over rapidly, half to herself and half to them, gradually growing breathless and showing no signs of releasing the Doctor from her bone-crunching grip.

"Are you Verity Regenbogen?" The Doctor patted her hair gently, looking very ill at ease at the girl who had flung herself at him for safety. Well, woman. She was close to Amy's own age, just a year younger actually, but her petite body made her look much younger. A woman-child really.

"Yes sir. Yes I am. Daughter of Ava and Itai, the two scientists urgently required for genetic work on New Earth. Are you here to help me?" Verity's voice was hushed, as if she were daring herself to believe this was true. She chanced a little peep at the Doctor from under her long eyelashes then looked shyly away.

"We're here to help you Verity. I'm the Doctor and this is Amy and you must tell me exactly what happened on this ship and _exactly_ how long you have been here, do you understand?" The Doctor now patted her shoulder. Verity showed no signs that she would let him go any time soon.

Verity lifted her head, releasing her grip somewhat, and her eyes wide with surprise. They were a beautiful blue, real big Disney princess style doe eyes, and tears clung thickly to her eyelashes. "Understand? I am not a simpleton you know. I've been on this ship nearly all my life. The journey to New Earth takes fifteen years. I was only five when we started."

"He means when did people start dying?" Amy interjected, stepping forwards to break up the little tableau of damsel-in-distress reverently thanking her knight-in-shining-armour. She could have sworn she saw a flicker of annoyance across _both_ their faces, but that was stupid, it was only Verity who looked as if she wouldn't mind if Amy sprouted two heads.

"I don't think we should talk here. This is my room after all and I'm not supposed to have people in here without Mother's permission." Verity released her grip on the Doctor, wiped her eyes and gave a brave little smile. She now took the Doctor's hand, clutching it tightly with both her hands. "Come on, I shall take you to the kitchen. It's nicer in there." She led him out the room and Amy followed in their wake, opening the rule book she still held in her hands.

As the door closed behind her, and they all trudged back up to the tiny galley kitchen, Amy turned her back on the words written on the walls, the words she had missed in the dark.

**GO AWAY**

**NOT WELCOME HERE**

**WE SHALL BE TOGETHER**

* * *

"I'm _telling_ you she likes you. All that 'save me sir, save me I need rescue'." Amy batted her own eyelashes and shook her hair in an imitation of Verity. "And you were so loving it. All heaving bosoms and clutching onto you – I guess it's not often we help out pretty women is it? Not in the same league as space whale vomit or mammoth dung really!" A peanut was thrown over the table at her head, and Amy squealed and ducked.

"Shut up. I'm just solving an ancient mystery." The Doctor scowled at Amy over the white plastic table and flicked his hair out of his eyes negligently.

"Cause that's how you roll?" Amy giggled, sinking her head into her shoulders to avoid another peanut projectile.

"Yes, that's how I r-" The Doctor stopped mid sentence, realising his slip up and turned away from her. "I'm examining the age of this rust hole in the floor. I'm very busy and important so stop bothering me."

Verity had brought them to the tiny kitchen of _The Columbus, _which was cramped with a large plastic table taking up much of the space. There was a single stand-away unit which looked like a large coffee machine with a built in cash machine. With every swipe of a card, the machine produced food, something impressively space-agey. Verity, instructed since childhood to look after guests, was providing them with snack bowls and was currently attempting to make an approximation of tea. The fluorescent lights were bothering Amy, and looked to be bothering Verity, who kept rubbing her temples as if in pain. The Doctor, meanwhile, was busy sonicing a hole in the floor which dropped straight to the enviro-pod below. She could hear, and smell, the animals.

She chewed a nut experimentally. It felt rubbery and strange between her teeth. Space age food = big no no then.

"Is there anything else I can get you?" Verity placed two steaming cups on the table and squeezed in next to the Doctor. "My mother tells me it is the mark of a housewife if everyone is well provided for."

"Oh yes, how long have you been waiting to be rescued? Start at the beginning if you please." The Doctor stowed the screwdriver in his jacket pocket and turned to Verity.

Verity's brow furrowed in thought. "It all started to go wrong a few months ago. People started going missing. Just very slowly, I just thought they were getting ill, so I didn't notice it much. But then Mother started getting very worried and tried hiding it from Isaiah and me. I can always tell when she's hiding things, so I knew it had to be serious. And…" Verity broke off, chewing her lip nervously. "She just disappeared. Isaiah and I were supposed to be doing our chores in the enviro-pod but he ran off and hid and Mother went to find him. And she never came back."

"You've been a very brave girl Verity but I need to know what happened." The Doctor patted her hands gently, the hands which now trembled on the table top while she sat still as a statue, as quiet as the grave.

"Father got so scared, more scared than I ever saw anyone in my life. He barricaded us all in the library, saying that he had set the controls to take us to the planet, that we would get there and he would fix everything. Then all the lights went out and I heard this buzzing noise all around us. I felt this pressure build in my head and… and… and…" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I blacked out. When I woke up everyone was gone. Vanished as if they had never even existed. I was left alone. I've been waiting for rescue for five weeks now and you're the first people I've seen since I held my brother's hand in the darkness, like I'm holding yours now." She took a deep breath, patted her chest absent-mindedly, and checked the comms device on her wrist. "Did you say you wanted sugar? Let me get you some."

Verity stood up abruptly, wringing her hands together and began fiddling with the silver food machine again.

"She is a strange thing. That story didn't half give me the creeps." Amy shuddered a little and reached for the cup of tea. It tasted absolutely disgusting and she put it back down quickly, trying to gag as quietly as she possibly could.

The Doctor was tapping his long fingers on the table top, his youthful face looking infinitely wise and thoughtful. "I'm more concerned with the fact she told us the ship's been left floating for only a few weeks. That's impossible. Unless it jumped through time of its own accord, the _Columbus_ has been abandoned for a thousand years. She should be very dead by now. None of this makes any sense."

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**Well, so the _Columbus _does have inhabitants. Or inhabitant. But how...? Guesses on a review plz. And you still have to decipher the quote which is the title. :D Thanks for my reviews for the last chapter! It's nice to know people like this and read this so keep reading and keep guessing as to what has happened. **

**And a note: I know it may seem weird for Amy to describe Verity as having huge tits, but I say that all the time about people as I am of the small breasted variety myself and know knocker envy. But let's skip past breast discussion and back to being befuddled by the great space mystery yes?**


	6. Chapter 6

"What about stasis? Could she have been in stasis, like on Red Dwarf?" How could a girl have been alive and dead for a thousand years? Vetoing the idea of immortality of course; this would have been a double impossibility. Amy couldn't begin to get her head round this – she'd seen so many insane and wonderful things but this was something that even the Doctor couldn't begin to understand.

He looked so serious, sat in the plastic chair across from her, his youthful face belying the sombre set in his eyes. He looked like he didn't know where to begin. Confused perhaps. Not a good thing in her experience.

"Stasis is a possibility although the computer did not indicate any stasis chambers aboard unless there was an ulterior force at work…" The Doctor squeezed the top of his nose distractedly and ran his hands through his hair. "She'd show signs of it at least. Wear and tear on the human body and all that." He clapped his hands and behind him Verity jumped slightly at the noise. She was a jumpy thing Amy had noticed. A jangle of worries, her big eyes constantly looking around her, constantly on edge. Her upbringing, Amy supposed. She'd never been allowed a moment for herself. The Doctor was striding towards Verity in that oh-so-confident way of his and she looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights. "Miss Regenbogen, I need to examine your brain is that all right?"

"Oh, of course. I'm overdue a medical exam anyway." She smiled shyly. "You are a genuine doctor aren't you? I'm not supposed to be alone with un-related males, not until the wedding. Mother's very old-fashioned."

"Wedding?" The word seemed to land like a pile of bricks into Amy's head. Wedding. **Bang**. Fiancée. **Bang bang**. Unwillingly, the figure of Rory was dragged into her mind. She'd run away on the night before her wedding to go travelling with her imaginary friend. As much as she'd tried to cast him from her mind, occasionally Rory would stumble back in and she would feel twinges of guilt. Not great big twinges mind. She would definitely be back to get married. Not that she really thought that she was the marrying kind. Well, not anymore she didn't… it was all very confusing really. Hormone city.

Verity smiled and nodded. "Oh, yes, I'm betrothed to Daniel Carpenter who lives on New Earth. He is a very commendable young man I am told. I've never met him." She added in response to Amy's response to 'I am told'. "It's all been arranged you see. Mother and Father were going to New Earth anyway, and they're very _traditional_ down there. It's why me and Isaiah – Isaiah and I," She corrected hurriedly, "have been brought up so strictly. We have to live in accordance with how they will expect us to behave. It would be very shameful for them if I was not womanly enough."

"I didn't know they still did arranged marriages. I thought they died out donkey's years ago along with black and white television and Sunday closing. Did you agree to it? Your … parents didn't force you into it did they?" It seemed so period drama, the young girl forced into marriage. Amy supposed that Daniel Carpenter must be one of the other archetype perfect humans, and the two would have lots and lots of perfect little babies. It seemed a little bit off. Even if she wasn't 100% on the idea of marriage, at least she'd had the choice to get engaged to Rory.

Verity's brow puckered, her mouth hanging open. She seemed to be having some difficulty at the idea of those scientists lying to her, or manipulating her. Then again, Verity looked like a girl who would have difficulty with most thoughts. She may have had bright eyes with long eyelashes that were oh-so-pretty but so did most cows and the two shared the same docility and general peacefulness. The scientists hadn't been going for clever when they'd designed her.

The Doctor shook his head minutely. Discussions on Verity's life were another big n-no then. Or perhaps it was to prevent her thinking too hard and causing herself an injury. "Right, Verity will show me to the medical quarters and Amy will go to the security room and review the surveillance footage."

"Surveillance footage? You're putting me on security duty?"

"Yes. Something has been running around turning power on and off, killing people and leaving messages on walls. Scurrying around trying to scare us off – just look behind you." The Doctor pointed to the wall behind Amy, who slowly turned round, daring herself to turn one inch at a time.

While they'd been talking something had written in bright shining letters all across the wall. Thousands upon thousands of messages, angry messages all directed at the three of them. **LEAVE US ALONE – WHO ARE YOU THAT SPEAKS LIKE THIS – ENEMIES ENEMIES ENEMIES – BAD PEOPLE – GO NOW – GO NOW – GO NOW – I SHALL KILL YOU**

"So I guess the monster is still alive then." Amy said weakly, her eyes running over the scrawled messages, some of which bordered on the insane to the gruesomely violent.

"And by the looks of things, it's a little bit annoyed we've landed."

* * *

So. Big evil monster that had killed a hundred people and eaten them. It had woken up a thousand years later and was seriously pissed off at her and the Doctor. So what was he doing? Splitting the two of them up, sending her off to the surveillance room while he could examine little Miss Bovine. It didn't seem a greatly intelligent plan and Amy voiced her opinions very loudly. Verity's eyes had popped at her choice of words.

"It hasn't attacked us yet, has it? Just words on walls. It might not want to attack us – it hasn't attacked Verity yet. Probably just sniffing us out, seeing what's what and all that, seeing whether it can scare us off." The Doctor smiled inanely and patted her shoulder cheerfully. Honestly. The chance to do some technological mumbo-jumbo and he acted as if it was Christmas.

"Oh, it probably won't kill me. That fills me with confidence."

"No need to be sarcastic." He waggled a long finger at her, teasing slightly, and slapped Verity on the shoulder too. "She'll tell you where to go. I have to realign main power to the medical machinery." He sloped off, all gangles and elbows, and Verity gave Amy a weak smile. She pointed up the corridor and held out a pass key.

"You'll need this to bypass the security details. The surveillance room is on the other side of the enviro-pod so I hope you don't mind animals. The birds will bother you a little. That's one of my chores. Feeding the birds. They're very tame but they have a horrible habit of nibbling your earlobes!" The door, which was down a steep slope, gave a chirpy little beep as Verity scanned her card. The door swooshed open (so Star Trek! Amy thought to herself) revealing what looked like a beautiful summer meadow. The grass was green, insects chirped and hummed in the humid air, the air was full of birdsong. One wall was an enormous window, revealing a gorgeous view of space.

Amy started to walk out, delightfully testing her feet on the springy, slightly applely grass when Verity started screaming.

Outside the window, lost in the cold harshness of the ever-expanding galaxy, was a man's body, floating slightly in the airless vacuum. He was quite dead.

* * *

**Sorry for the slight delay in updates - been in Spain, caught a bug, been very ill for about a week and a half. And this chapter is very starterish - all morsels, not much really to munch on. But moar shock!conclusions soon! After all, what could possibly be running around unseen and undetected? And how can you live for a thousand years?**

**Thanks to all readers and to Laitorni for adding this to your alerts. Support keeps me going and eh... can I bribe you into a few reviews? For oh, a mention in the sequel? Which is currently being written. That probably gives away something. Whoops. Or maybe not...**


	7. Chapter 7

Verity wouldn't stop screaming. She was going crazy, almost ripping her hair out in her panic. Amy felt weak at the knees, almost sick with fear and sick at the sight of the dead man. She'd never seen a dead body before. No, that was a lie. She'd seen small things, like mice and dead baby birds. She'd never seen a dead person. This was the first dead person she'd ever seen and he was staring her right in the face. Such fear… she'd never seen fear etched upon a face like that. The man had thick dark hair, and was squat with big, thick fingers. He looked vaguely familiar. He clutched a cylindrical box to his chest, something worth dying for.

Verity walked to the window, her hands held out, looking as if she were lost in a dream. "Daddy… my daddy…" She raised a hand to the glass, stretching her fingers over the man's face, as if she would reach through and stoke him. This was Itai Kovács, the man who created her. But how had he died? Verity had said the remaining crew had converged in the library but somehow Itai had grabbed something, ran to an airlock, and had floated in the empty vacuum of space for a thousand years. The girl was resting her face against the cool glass, her eyes squeezed shut.

What could she do? How could she comfort her? Verity had always known her father was dead but having to see him dead was another matter. Amy awkwardly reached out to hold Verity's hand. She took a shuffled step to get closer but her foot hit something round and hard, which under her weight made a horrible slippery crunching sound before it shattered.

It was a skull. An actual _human_ skull she'd trodden on. She squealed in disgust, leaping away from it as if she were scalded. Verity jumped, looked at the ground, and started screaming again. All around the window where the remains of Itai floated there were hundreds of bones, loosely buried under the thin soil. They were standing in a mass grave. In a moment of shared panic, the two girls flung their arms around each other, and half ran, half fell in their desperation to get away from the bodies, screaming incoherent sentences to each other.

"Bodies! There are bodies!"

"How could they be skeletons? It's only been a month, bodies don't decay that fast!"

"The monster's still aboard! How's it going to react when it knows we've found its' hiding place?"

A terrible noise started behind them; Amy screamed even louder and grabbed onto Verity, who pulled a very small pistol from her belt and brandished it furiously. It was only a cow, curious at the racket and Amy sighed in relief, clutching her sides. Screaming in fear _hurt_. She now had a terrible stitch. Verity patted the cow's head absent-mindedly, still holding the gun.

"What is that?" Amy asked her, breathlessly. She was glad for the slight diversion which took her mind off the shards of skull on her trainer for the moment.

Verity held the pistol up to the light, where the blue of the metal softly reflected the glare. "Laser pistol. I broke into the weapons storage when Mother disappeared and I've been carrying it ever since. It's got one shot left. Here." She thrust it in Amy's hand unexpectedly. It was cold and surprisingly light-weight in her hand. "If the creature which did this is still here, then take it. Protect yourself."

"I don't know… I've never fired a gun before. I don't think I could use it." Amy began to protest, but Verity shook her head softly, sending her curls flying.

"I can't have whatever did this to my family live. And you'll be on your own, it'll target you. It only took people when they were on their own. And this too." The girl unstrapped her wrist device and slowly attached it around Amy's own wrist. "It's a communicator. It patches into the sound-system of the ship – you can talk to anyone in any room. You can tell us when it's coming." Verity's jaw twitched oddly, an echo of her mother's grim set to the jaw, and a steely determination lit up in those Bambi blue eyes. "I want it dead. I want its head for the wall of the house I shall share with my husband. This thing has destroyed my life but I shan't let it destroy me. Or you." She added as a slight afterthought.

"Thanks. Uh, medical bay?" Amy wasn't sure whether this would work, but the box on her wrist beeped cheerfully and the booming sound of the Doctor singing to himself erupted into the room. "Doctor?"

"Hello? Amy? Have you watched the surveillance videos that fast? Oh… the ship has a system of in-coms allowing any member of the crew to immediately gain contact with another. Useful. Very useful… where are you?"

"We're just inside the enviro-pod but we ran into… slight complications." Was there a tactful way to say 'Hey, we found the bodies of Verity's family. One's floating outside the ship, freaking us the fuuudge out."

"Oh, me too, there's been some cowboys in here! Someone's been in here, trashed the medical machinery and destroyed the medical profiles for all the crew members. They've done a very poor job of it, nothing the sonic can't fix, so send Verity straight on up after you've solved your problem. What is it?" The Doctor's voice was tinny on the little speaker and Amy felt the words dry up in her throat. She made a slight groaning noise, as the Doctor grew exasperated, and Verity stomped over and grabbed Amy's arm.

"We found the bodies of my family sir. They've been buried in shallow graves under the main window, where the body of my father is floating outside having been flung out the airlock. He's holding what looks like the entire archives of the surveillance footage." There was a hint of a quiver in her voice, but Verity was surprisingly steady. Her eyes were free from tears and she appeared stronger and more confident than earlier. Grief can affect people in different ways. In Verity it was unleashing a cold and firm little madam.

"I was worrying that might happen. I'm very sorry for what's happened Verity but there was no predicting where we might find their remains. Come up to the medical bay, and then I promise I will fix this. I'll take you down to New Earth and prevent whatever is on this ship from hurting anyone else."

"I will do sir, but I have one question: how come they've decomposed? They've only been dead five weeks, it's impossible. Is there something that you're not telling me?" This time her voice broke. She sounded so lost and earnest… Amy wanted to tell her desperately, let her know that they were lying to her, that it had been a thousand years and Verity had nothing anymore.

The Doctor paused for a second. It was a pause that was far too long. She would know for sure that they were lying to her. "Of course not. Whatever this creature is (which, as I am a genius, I'll detect and detain) is immensely powerful and enjoying watching you run around afraid. So Pond, fear is doing you no good so cease to be afraid. Before you ask, I need you to go to that surveillance room."

"I guess that leaves me with no option then." Amy realised that she was still holding the laser gun. It felt comfortable in her hand. She squeezed it slightly and felt her fear slip away. At least she wouldn't be facing the horrible sadistic monster unarmed. She turned to the dark little door on the other end of the meadow, past the dancing poppy heads and the swooping birds. It was only faintly ominous.

* * *

The medical bay was larger than any other room they had explored on the _Columbus_. The rest of the ship had been cramped and decaying whereas this place was huge. It was packed full of medical and scientific equipment, clearly showing where the crew's mentalities had lain. This room was the focus of their work, where they had created and sustained their magnum opus.

Someone else had attempted to destroy it. Something with phenomenal strength had ripped apart machines, destroyed scanners, and crushed samples to dust upon the floor. Phenomenal strength and phenomenal _anger_; the room had absorbed the rage, the emotion overpowering in the stagnant air. The Doctor was able to salvage a very basic medical scanner which with a bit of sonic would be able to do what he needed. It was the only machine he would trust. The rest seemed so barbaric. Lots of invasive examining wands and bone drills, and for some reason, an energy beam, designed to keep a subject in place… what had they been doing to the children? What procedures would require them being forcibly held down?

He accidentally knocked a button with an elbow. An image of a woman suddenly appeared all around him – he was in the centre of five enormous screens. The video had been hidden, kept separately from the medical information. A double-bluff in case of accident, emergency, accidental deletion… or sabotage. The woman in front of him was clearly pregnant and uncomfortable with it, her face flushed and a hand resting on the curve of her swollen belly. She was dark haired with a heavy jaw and vivid green eyes.

She was weeping, silently and profusely. This was Ava Rhydderch, chief scientist of the Regenbogen project, a grim and determined woman, pouring her heart out on film.

"If you are watching this, then we have been discovered. We are discovered and punished for the evil we did."

* * *

**Thanks for my latest story alerts and favourites and for my reviews :) The story's picking up a bit now, we're heading towards a conclusion... but not without a few more twists and turns along the way - let's face it, nothing aboard the _Columbus _has been particularly down the line, and why would I stop now? Guesses on a review plz. There should be some clues littered across the story as to who or what the monster is, and I'd love to know what you think. Not that I'm going to tell you directly who it is until it's needed.**


	8. Chapter 8

_"If you are watching this, then we have been discovered. We are discovered and punished for the evil we did."_

The words stood silent in the air. Now, those are words to catch someone's attention, thought the Doctor, but what's the substance to go with it? He knew that they had mistreated Verity and her brother to force upon them good moral decency for the sake of making a new perfect society. A pipe dream in some respects. Nine times out of ten it would just backfire and then you get resentful and aggressive people who just spread discourse. Verity appeared to be one of the unlikely few who blindly followed the routine set out for her, and happily. Now it seemed that this wasn't down to reinforcement, but to a genetic submissiveness.

"If this is playing, our mission has failed and you have discovered our ship." The woman continued, the words distasteful in her mouth which was puckered as if each word tasted of file. "I am the creator of the Regenbogen perfection… or the 'Rainbow' perfection if you will. The ancient symbol of hope; hope, of course, which has been lacking in the empire for so many years now that we do not know what it is like to live without fear. The idea was to rekindle hope in our fellow humans by recreating the perfect human genome. We were successful, my compatriots and I, as you can see." She patted her swollen stomach with just a hint of professional pride. "My college Itai and I perfected the original specimen. Verity. We are raising her as our own, as we shall with this boy. They must never know the truth. Of course, the truth lies in her name." Ava snorted a little, laughing at her own little joke.

I don't think that's something to particularly joke about, thought the Doctor sadly. Something went wrong here. They started with dreams and ended them with cruelty, almost as if they forgot the human factor within the delusion they created.

"But we are lying not only to her, but the rest of the crew. We did not just recreate the pureblood human genome." Now the stern, smirking scientist hung her head for shame and the tears which had dried upon her cheeks were replaced with fresh streams flowing down her cheeks.

No… Humans were always reaching further and further in their greed. What they had would never be enough to accept. The Doctor knew that the two scientists had conducted a plan between them, like crones over a cauldron, to improve the human race, to better themselves. "What did you add?" He whispered to the image of the long-dead woman.

"We _improved_ her. We made Verity an absolutely perfect vessel to carry the future of humanity. There were so many flaws with the gene structures we had – so many possibilities for disease! We couldn't allow any impurities and we had to ensure the survival of her line. We didn't think we were doing anything wrong, but if you are watching this, then something has gone wrong with Verity. There is no other reason why the mission would stop. Please help her. Message end." The image flickered and closed, displaying the time stamp.

An impossible time stamp from one thousand years before. Now everything made sense. The scientists, in their ignorance, had created an _absolutely_ perfect being. A gene for longevity had been added, it must have, and when everyone else had died Verity had remained. And had kept remaining all this time. They had misjudged something, and the impossible girl was still alive, and still thinking that time hadn't changed. This would be proved by a medical examination he hoped.

And there was still the monster to deal with. A genetic experiment gone bad? Itai and Ava had been the very best in their field, but mistakes are part of human nature.

"Sir?" Verity knocked gently on the door and timidly entered the room. She gave him such a sweet little smile, a smile that would have fooled any man that she was entirely human. There! He could see it now. Just the faintest glimmer of _otherness_ in those round blue eyes, a tiny golden shine that came out those innocent orbs. "Amy has gone to the security room and ah! There it is!" She pointed to a book, lying dusty next to the medical scanner. "I always read this in here. I am sometimes lying in the scanner for hours upon hours and it is one of my favourite pastimes." Verity held up the battered and tatty book lovingly. "I 'forget it not' as it were, even if I am forgetting such a lot lately."

The Doctor grabbed it from her hands, and flicked through the pages, reading it at a super-human speed. "The collected poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt, nice edition, shame they've included the Mary Howard poems, he told me he didn't write them when I was playing skittles with him. He's a terrible shot by the way and he cheats. Forgetting? Goes along with the head pain yes? You do keep rubbing your temple, could be a sign of … something."

"Playing skittles with an ancient? You talk in such riddles – I do not even know your name, and here you are, talking of meeting a man who died such an immeasurable time ago. I think perhaps that you are teasing me for your own benefit." But she gave a little rosebud smile and her eyes glowed with happiness. Or genetic mutation.

He smiled back at her, as warmly as he could and she responded with a slightest inclination of her head. At least the alterations hadn't sent her mad. He hated it when they went mad. "I'm sure you know more about these machines than I do. What normally happens first at one of these examinations?"

"Normally they ask me about my general health at first and take a blood sample." She unbuttoned the sleeve of her dress, holding out an arm pitted with tiny white scars along the veins. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Hadn't she said she was overdue a medical exam? How many had she had? They had probably kept an extraordinarily close eye upon her since birth.

"How often do they check your health?"

"Twice a week sir. I was very ill as a young child, and Mother says they must keep a close watch upon me. You are right, by the way, I have had a terrible headache for many weeks past and I have not had my courses."

The Doctor flashed the light from the sonic screwdriver in her eyes, which didn't dilate or react in any way at all to the light. Very odd. "Courses? What do you me- oh!" He dropped the screwdriver with a yelp and Verity giggled. It was an indulged little chuckle, the laugh of a child.

"You do not seem exceedingly professional!" She laughed teasingly at him and shyly poked his shoulder. "My _courses_. I am supposed to have one a fortnight and I have missed two which is very worrying to me."

'We have improved her. We must ensure the survival of her line'. Ava's words repeated themselves in his head, round and round. To rebuild a population would take a long time with the human gestation period. Theoretically, if you halved the monthly cycle you could double the estimated fertility of the average human woman. Clever but not necessarily sensible. Verity was the foundation of the next wave of humanity. There would be no room for failure. She was a living, breathing, breeding machine.

"Oh! You have lost a button on your cuff! I can fix it if you like."

The moment seemed to last an eternity. She reached out towards the cuff of his jacket, stretching out her white fingertips so they brushed the fabric and then curled around his wrist, bringing it closer so she could examine the buttonhole. Her grip felt like a vice of iron, far stronger than any human should be. It was cold too. Her skin was as cold as ice. As cold as death.

* * *

**This is mainly pulled together from my original draft so may sound a bit ... odd... but it'll make sense in the end. And oh, what's that at the end? Plot development? A real tangiable clue? Sewing prowess? All this and more! We are nearing the conclusion of this tale oh yes.**

**And I know, no Amy this chapter. She has plot developments of her own in the next chapter which I couldn't make fit into this one because it ended on such a good note. Well, not a good note. More a horrifyingly creepy note. Anywho, finale this Saturday, the ending of which will effect my sequels... yes, I have planned sequelS. My aim is to have thirteen other stories after this, like the television series. They will have a connecting theme leading to a finale. Hopefully. I have planned twelve stories, the plot-lines I'll 'release' in the last chapter of this story. If you think this is a crummy idea or a fantabulous idea please tell me.**

**Thanks to all those who review, favourite and alert this story. You all have very obvious good taste.**


	9. Chapter 9

The room was dank, dark and damp; great vines had long ago taken sway in the cramped area, rendering what had been a futuristic and modern security room into something more closely resembling a prehistoric jungle. As Amy stepped tentatively into the room, birds took fright and flew around the roof squealing loudly their protests of her. What could she hope to achieve in here? What hadn't been claimed by the animals or the greenery had been destroyed by someone – or more accurately, the some_thing _that had killed the crew so long ago.

Whatever it was had great strength. A whole bank of screens had been left in-situ smashed to smithereens. Little data chips lay crushed into powder. Something very powerful and angry had done this. Whatever it was had taken a swipe so powerful at a screen it had left an imprint of a hand. Amy held her own to it. Chillingly, the hand which had left such a fierce mark was smaller than hers.

One solitary video screen was left amidst the destruction. It stood alone in the centre of the room, dead leaves, solitary animal corpses and feathers lying at the base. Thousands of once brightly coloured buttons, now faded and grimy with time, were arranged around the screen which occasionally flickered with a golden static. O-kay. There were options. She just didn't know what the right option was. The red button was shaped like an arrow – a rewind button perhaps? To show the last recorded film? God, she hoped so. She didn't want to spend a minute longer than she had to in this room. Things kept moving in the shadows.

An image of a door flicked on the screen. Right. Not the right tape then – out of nowhere, a lone man dashed onto the screen. He was middle aged, portly, and clutched his sides desperately, his breath rattling in his chest. He was holding a round canister that looked oddly familiar – Itai! It was the scientist, just before he jumped off-ship. Whatever happened next was bound to be important.

"You've lost old man." The words made Amy jump. It wasn't the words themselves, or the horrible, taunting tone they were said in. It was the fact that while her brain knew they'd been said her ears swore they hadn't heard them. The words just appeared inside her mind.

"It was never a game to me. I loved Verity as my own and you have taken her from me! This ship will never get to New Earth and you will never get your hands on these medical records!" He shook the canister furiously at the unknown assailant. A woman she thought. It sounded female. She'd be able to see whoever it was but a strange golden glow was at the bottom of the camera feed, obscuring the picture.

"I have no need of records. I have no need of _you_." The glow intensified, burning a brighter gold than she had seen before, appearing to be more like a fire than light. It blazed with a fearsome intensity, dazzling Amy's vision.

"I prefer to die at my own hands than at some creature mimicking my child!" Itai bellowed with fury and flung out an arm, smacking a button with such force that it took both Amy and the creature by surprise – she jumped away from the screen, the glow receded in an instant – and Itai was sucked out through the door into the hostile emptiness of space.

_Mimicking my child_. **_Mimicking_**_ my child_. The words burned into Amy's mind and repeated themselves over and over. This phrase had to be the key to solving the mystery once and for all.

She tried another button, a bright yellow circle. The video it played was the answer to everything, the entire mystery of the _Columbus_. She couldn't believe it. She had to tell the Doctor right away before he too got killed.

* * *

The Doctor struggled against Verity's hold but her grip was like a vice and he was well and truly stuck tight. Her strength was beyond human capacity – absolutely impossible. Whatever the scientists had added to her genetic code, they had accidently made a very dangerous weapon. A weapon that never aged, never died and never lost stamina. An accidental weapon no doubt but one that could never be allowed to leave this ship. What damage she could do to worlds, to the universe. He knew that someone would let her out, that soon this ship would be found empty with an escape pod missing. Verity unleashed upon all of existence.

She stood still as a statue, silently watching him struggle with a neutral impassivity that was eerie. She watched him as one would view an insect; a little thing which presented no threat. Not one muscle moved. There was no hint of emotion upon her pretty face, no sign of any interest in her eyes.

"You know so much."

The sentence caught him by surprise. The Doctor knew that he must have heard those words, that she must have opened her mouth and elucidated them into the air. Yet it felt that they had appeared ready made within the confines of his mind, as if they had always been there, as if they would always be there.

"I knew nothing. Before my existence I was but nothing. I was the innate within us all, the three basic emotions. Fear. Rage. Love. Through fear I ran to the stars. Through rage I killed every crew member aboard this ship. Through love I have learnt. I am now human. I can speak human words."

The voice wasn't Verity's the Doctor now realised. Oh, there was an echo of her shy tones, but something else was speaking through her. The voice had a mechanistic quality, a determined flat twang. Almost robotic, as if it barely understood the process of speech, or if it only just recognised the bare-bone qualities needed to make it work.

"Who are you? Why are you using this girl to talk to me? Are you in need of help? Is it something that the scientists did, the genes that they programmed attracted you here?" He kept his voice low, calm and kind. This could be anything transmitting through her tiny form. A stray transmission. A creature requiring help. Anything could be using her to contact him.

Now her face showed a sign of something. Her mouth cracked into a wide smile. It wasn't the smile of before. It was a cruel smile, an arrogant smile that played around her rosebud lips as if she were savouring the moment.

"It is not I who need help. It is _you_ that are needing help. I require human energy to feed upon, their thoughts, their memories and their dreams. You have plenty. I can gorge myself upon you and your machine. 'My dear, my dear, out of a lair in the flocked leaves in the dew dipped year, to eat your heart in the house in the rosy wood.' You see? I am now possessed of culture. Look in my eyes, can you not see that it is true?"

The Doctor knew that that would not be a good idea by any stretch of the imagination. When suspicious creatures ask you do something it was often for reasons which involved a nefarious plan and/or the destruction of the Earth, the universe… insert the usual trite clichés if you must, they all amounted to the same conclusion.

Unfortunately, his good intentions (i.e. not looking in her eyes, working out what exactly was happening here and getting out of here with Amy sometime soon) were being drastically overridden by the overwhelming desire to look into her eyes. Something inside his head was forcing him to look, was convincing him that he should look, that he would come to no harm, that everything would be _all right_.

Her eyes were bright gold. Solid bright gold. No pupil, no iris, no distinction. No signs of life either. They burned with a bright intensity. A curious warmth was spreading from the cold hands that still clutched his wrists tightly, spreading down his arms and across his chest, leaving it feeling like tight bands were slowly and gently squeezing. It was oddly comforting and he felt dreamy, almost happy.

"Doctor! Step away from her!" It was Amy's voice, sharp with anger and determination. Her urgency broke the bands spreading across his chest with a snap, the strange dreaminess broken in an instant. Incandescent fury spread across Verity's face and she threw the Doctor away from her with a bellow of complete and utter ferocity.

Without skipping a beat Amy drew a small pistol and shot Verity in the chest.

* * *

**So the mystery is finally revealed... or is it? So you now know Verity was the monster but HOW WHY WHAT AMY SHOT HER.**

**All will revealed next time folks. There's still a few more twists and turns planned!**

**The quotation that Verity says is from _In Country Sheep_ by Dylan Thomas. I've tried (in vain) to get across that Verity adores the written word. It was very apparent in my first draft, not so much in this version. Ahhh, well, the quote is still good.**

**Thanks for the alerts, favourites and reviews. I like the little fanbase this story has. It makes me happy :)**

**On another note, I have the titles of the thirteen sequels and plots mapped out. I've finished college today so I have two-ish months of nothingness to fill with awesome story time!**


	10. Chapter 10

The shot hit Verity dead centre in the chest, the blast narrowly missing her heart. It knocked her off balance, and she fell backwards, her legs collapsing underneath her. She took a few wobbly steps away from the furious figure of Amy and suddenly was encased in a bright blue beam of light. The stumbling figure, who had now crumpled onto her knees, had accidentally triggered the energy prison and was trapped inside, dying.

"You've killed her. Why would you do something so stupid?" The Doctor snatched the small laser pistol from Amy's hand and threw it on the floor in his anger. "Haven't you a brain inside your head? What would possess you to do… to do… something so idiotic?" He bellowed this into Amy's face before turning away from her to the energy prison with Verity within. She wasn't moving and there was no way to reach her.

Amy stuck her chin out defiantly. "You can't kill what isn't alive. It would have killed you and you were willing to let it walk all over you. It's got some sort of mind power!" She gestured wildly, flapping her hands around her head.

"_What_?" The Doctor snorted disbelievingly, refusing to even glance at Amy, and squatted down next to the still body of Verity. He had only seen stillness like that when movement was no longer an option.

To his immense surprise and to Amy's smugness, Verity's head flicked up with a movement so quick and so sudden that he fell backwards, completely caught off his guard. To add insult to injury, he landed heavily on his backside, causing Amy to burst into hysterical giggles. She had been wound up tightly by the tension upon this ghost ship that it now came bursting out unbidden, unstoppable even when she crammed her knuckles into her mouth. She laughed until her sides hurt and tears rolled down her face.

Verity watched the two of them with the golden glowing eyes of a snake. Her head flicked from the dishevelled figure on the floor to the shaking figure standing up. She made no noise. She did not even breathe or blink.

"L-look I'll show you what I mean." The hysterics had almost abated, leaving behind only a chuckle or too, and Amy began tapping away upon the communicator device still bound on her wrist. "I knew about the energy device thing because I overheard you on the internal coms. So I thought that if that synced up, then the other technology on the ship would be able to send information between each other. 'Cos you need to watch this…"

The time stamp left on the screen by Ava's message was replaced by another video. It was Verity sat, reading a large book most studiously at her desk in her room. It was what could be presumed to be a normal scene in the small and convoluted history of the girl, and she was silent apart from the occasional turn of a page.

"Right. There's Verity and there's Verity. What point are you trying to make Pond?"

He had spoken too soon. There was a ventilation hatch set in the wall above Verity, and slowly, silently, a golden gas began seeping into the room. It rolled in like a storm fog, thick and heavy in the air so it flowed to the floor, lugubriously inching across the floor to mill around Verity's ankles. It then rose like a wave, gaining height behind her shoulders. Fronds spread out like fingers and glided through the air to clasp around Verity's thin white throat. She gave a piteous cry, like a small child, and with a chilling crack her head was twisted sideways and upwards.

Her body fell, yet remained supported by the gas cloud, so that she looked like a doll held up with strings. Her limbs were limp and slack, her head flopping around unnaturally on her broken neck. With an immense groan, the gas all at once was absorbed into the body through her mouth. Verity glowed gold, the colour oozing from her skin, beams radiating from her eyes. It faded as soon as it had appeared, and Verity shook her head woozily, and picked herself up from the floor.

"Silly. I must have fallen from my chair." The girl on the film muttered as she sat back in her chair.

Amy pushed a button on the wrist device and the image froze on the screen. "She's always been dead. The whole time we've been here she's been dead. Whatever it is inside her killed the crew members and has been keeping her alive all this time."

The two of them looked to the energy beam where Verity now stood silently watching the two of them, her hands by her sides, her eyes glowing gold.

"So you shot her to trap her inside the energy prison where she – or rather, the creature inside her – couldn't get to either of us. I presume she gave you the weapon? It makes sense. Don't give those hunting you something that could actually hurt you. Clever. Very clever. No matter how much Verity's personality seems in control of the operation, the gas cloud monster is aware of what's going on." The Doctor picked up the small laser pistol and examined it minutely. "This just fires bursts of energy, not much use as a weapon. Sort of a fashion object that ladies liked to carry around in bags to use at parties. A _toy_." He said this as if the idea of guns as toys was extremely distasteful to him. He threw it across the medical bay again and walked up to the watching figure of Verity.

"So… why the elaborate con? And why for so long? There's thousands of ships around the _Columbus__, _you could have hopped aboard one of them and zoomed off to whatever planet you came from and Bob's your uncle end of monster."

"I am just above my planet. Why for would I go to another world?" Amy could hear the difference now in the voices. This was a dull, grating monotone with no emotion or feeling in the words. It was like… there was no _life_ in her voice.

"So you come from New Earth? Your race are the original inhabitants of New Earth and you made way for humanity?" Amy chipped in, approaching the girl who turned her blank gaze to her. The eyes felt like they were burning into hers and a sneer broke across her face.

"Made _way_ for humanity?" Now there was something in the voice. It was rage, pure and adulterated. Verity's hands clenched into fists and she launched herself at the wall of her prison. She pressed her face into the beam, as close as she could get to Amy and snarled like an animal. "We were peaceful creatures, with no higher intelligence. We were no threat to anyone. We did not understand when the ships came. So when they started to burn the skies, we willingly walked into the flames and did not scream when the flames caught."

A wave of sadness spread through Amy. No matter what it had done or the people it had hurt there was something so tragic in those words. It reminded her of Friday history lessons about the Nazis and the terrible knowledge that things like that had happened and weren't prevented. She'd always thanked herself that people didn't behave like that anymore. Now it seemed that destruction and death followed humanity like lightning followed thunder. They would forever be entwined and this poor creature was the result.

The Doctor meanwhile was dashing around the energy beam with the sonic screwdriver, scanning every inch. He would occasionally look at the screwdriver and scowl. "Ionic traces. It sends out hallucinations built out of ionic power to trap its' prey. That's why Verity didn't notice anything and why I stopped fighting its' influence. Clever little trick and no doubt why we didn't notice anything amiss. It doesn't change anything, just our perception. A psychograft creature no doubt. It's like a flea, a very sophisticated flea. It feeds off creatures, leaving inside their bodies in a symbiotic relationship. The scientific name would be endosymbiosis, but then I just sound stuffy." He had come back round to face Verity and stood close to her, his face a bare inch away from her snarls.

"We have no name. We are nothing." She returned to her previous monotone and stared blankly at him.

"You keep referring to 'we'. I'm guessing then that all your species are connected somehow, probably some sort of psychic link. Where are the rest of you then? Waiting on the sidelines for us? What's the plan – to take back New Earth from the humans? Why wait a thousand years?"

"I do not know where the rest of them are. I cannot sense them anymore. Before I escaped they all disappeared. There was… a hole in the sky, I do not have the words to explain it, but there was a hole and they went through it. I was left behind and I was afraid. A human was talking on a machine, so I used it to be sent across the stars. I transmitted myself with the data and came to this ship. And here I have remained ever since."

"But why take Verity? Why kill her if you were existing perfectly well without her?"

A bright smile, a smile so full of love, lit up the creature's face. Amy had never seen such a smile before. It was a look of complete and utter devotion. Her eyes glowed with happiness. "She was but a girl when I first saw her. A little child of five human years and she was beautiful. You never saw such a beautiful child! She had little rosy cheeks, and bright chestnut ringlets, and such beautiful blue eyes… I saw her in that moment and knew that I loved her." The look of love faded and was replaced with a scowl. "They were dragging her to a medical test. She was screaming in fear! Bone marrow examination! Do you know what they do to you? Six needles into your hip. That is no thing to do your child! I couldn't understand why they would do such a thing until I found out what was really going on."

"That they were going to use her to breed a new, improved version of the human race." The Doctor interjected and the creature nodded. His previous anger had long since receeded; now he spoke sympathetically, with an understanding tone that to Amy indicated that perhaps he had experienced something similar. The pain of a loved one? A love so encompassing that you would kill others for it?

"Yes. They'd fiddled with her DNA. Made her twice as fertile. Shortened her gestation period so she could have more children. Done things to her womb so that she could hold more foetuses in her belly." The creature slapped her own belly passionately. She was fuming, the gold in her eyes burning with fury again. "And so many medical tests! Never any privacy. They were always taking blood samples and hair samples and sticking things inside her to check the development of her womb. It was indecent! I had to stop it. I had to punish them all for the suffering they put her through. The only thing that made her happy was reading but they wouldn't let her continue that! She'd be forced to have hundreds of children and never finish her work! I love Verity. I couldn't let it continue. I watched her her whole life and knew that when we drew close to New Earth that she'd be forced into marriage. So I rescued her so that they could never hurt her again. Out of love."

"Love her? _Love_?" The Doctor laughed out loud. "You killed her! You knew that if you took her body she'd die in agony! You would compress her personality to death so you took the coward's way out and broke her neck. You didn't let her live. You were selfish and took her for yourself. She had no choice in this. This is unfair." He ran a hand through his hair madly and the Verity-creature watched him and for some reason she smiled.

"So what shall you do in your philosophy? She is mine. I made her and I love her and she is mine. She belongs to me. I shall feed upon the energy of you and your woman as I have done to all others who found us. She gave me intelligence and my … you-ness. I am now self aware. I count as a life form and moreover, if you kill me, then you kill Verity. What shall it be Doctor? Shall you kill both of us just to spite me?" She drew herself up to her full height (which wasn't that impressive) and actually spat on the floor in contempt. "You've split in two halves haven't you?" She put on a ridiculous mimick of the Doctor's voice."_Shall I kill them or shan't I_? So go on physician. Heal thyself."

* * *

**This is the longest chapter yet, and it is quite dense but consider it the showdown element of an episode. This should explain all querries raised by the last chapter and I know there's a lot of talking and not much action but now you know the great dilemma of the story as there is in every episode. Should Verity die so the gas creature inside her is stopped from eating loads of people's energy to keep her alive? Verity isn't even consciously aware of any of this. She still thinks it's been five weeks.**

**Thanks for all the support! And it doesn't matter if you've jumped on board a little later than most. As long as you stick around for uh, two more chapters? There's still a twist or two left in the gas creature/Verity/perfect human.**

**And lugubriously is a cool word. I know it means 'Morose' but gas clouds can has feelings too.**


	11. Chapter 11

Time ticked on. Amy sat on a metal gurney, tarnished and squeaky with age, and idly swung her legs. The Verity-creature had long since delivered her ultimatum and had lain on the ground inside her blue prison. She hadn't moved for an hour and neither had the Doctor. The Doctor was sat next to her, mind lost to thought and deliberation. He held his head in his hands, unable to make a decision either way.

The real problem lay in the fact that Verity wasn't even consciously aware of what was happening around her. The psycho-thingy creature had locked her consciousness and personality away inside her head. For her, it had been five weeks. In reality, a millennium.

"How can I condemn someone who doesn't know about my judgement?" That was all he had said and now the two girls would have to wait in a pseudo futuristic purgatory. They would have to wait in this encompassing silence for a death penalty or a snatch at life. It would only be a snatch, a half life. No matter how alive she had seemed, Verity would always remain dead. A walking corpse, denied of anything that really made life worth living. Not nearly as glamorous as the countless vampire novels and films made out. The silence and the stillness were incredibly dull. Stiflingly so. Could anyone cope with an eternity of this? She couldn't even stand sixty minutes.

There had been a little niggling thought in the back of her mind that was suddenly pushed forwards.

"Doctor, dead bodies can't heal themselves can they?" Amy had been thinking about typical vampire films, where terrible injuries were healed in an instant, thanks to their 'condition' and the wonders of CGI.

"Of course they can't. Why ask such a ridiculous question?"

"If Verity's body got injured then she wouldn't be able to heal, she'd just remain broken. A thousand years is a long time to bar accidents."

"Not unless we have access to nanogenes." The creature spoke quietly, the grating monotone of her voice slightly peppered with peevishness. "I don't appreciate it when you talk above me. I have an active consciousness. I am an entity." Her face lit up with what Amy recognised as Verity's shy yet endearing rosebud smile. "I am Verity, heart and soul. Her communicator has nanogenes programmed for her DNA. With my energy driving her, and her genes to heal her, she need never cease to be. Never wither. Never age. Never die. Perfection. The one true perfection."

"It sounds like a hostile takeover to me!" Amy spat at the creature. "The girl I met wasn't interested in living forever. She was excited about getting married, and having children." She stormed up to the energy prison, where the creature had leapt to her feet and flung herself at the wall, pounding the energy beam with the heels of her hands. "You are saying how much you love her out of a dead girl's lips. That's not love. That's sick!"

The creature's eyes popped and her mouth opened… but nothing came out but the tiniest of whispers. "_Daniel_…" It was nothing but perhaps an echo of a voice and it surprised Amy. _That_ was Verity's voice, not the creature's.

The Doctor's head popped up like a rabbit, his hair shambolic, and his eyes wide with surprise. "I've got a plan! I know what to do!"

Now that was the biggest surprise of all, thought Amy, but before she could voice this, the Doctor railroaded her by continuing to talk erratically. "You started talking about Verity and she answered: yes?"

Amy frowned and dragged her gaze away from the dazed creature. "Yes, I guess so." She answered, confused by the question.

"The psychograft remains in control of the working system of Verity's body all the time but only in control of her mind when it's the dominant personality. That was the problem with them, they compressed you to death. Verity is dead so that's not a problem anymore. Her real personality has been locked away inside a big box in that head of hers – so we have to find the key!" The Doctor waggled a finger with a flourish, absolutely convinced he had played a winning card.

Amy wasn't as convinced. How could they find something to bring out Verity without the creature noticing? It had regained itself now and was watching them minutely, monitoring every gesture. Whatever they did, the Verity creature was likely to be already two steps ahead.

"You needed stay so confused Pond it does pucker your forehead so. Here, you can check." Amy had made a noise like an angry cat at his words and from nowhere he pulled out a mirror. He leant in close so she could see her reflection, and his breath tickled her ear.

"_I'm going to do something incredibly stupid. When I say the word uh, squelch, you press that blue button on the control panel over there. It'll dissolve the energy field_." The Doctor whispered in her ear and drew away from Amy, walking back over to the ever watching eyes of the Verity creature. It had turned it's full attention to him, leaving Amy relatively unseen to creep over to the control panel. She couldn't believe his plan could work. It seemed so utterly ridiculous, so insane, so downright Doctorish. She'd just have to go with the flow until the problem had righted itself or they were forced to run for their lives.

"So, psychograft, skimmer creature, whatever names and curses you have lived under, can you finish this verse? How does it go? Forget not yet, forget not this…" The Doctor's tone was light, conversational even. Amy knew that within this light candyfloss of superfluous talk was hidden a razorblade. His tone concealed a steely edge.

Verity's stony face remained impassive. "I do not understand. I have no knowledge of th-th-this…" Her voice trailed off. She staggered. Placed a shaky hand to her head. The golden glow in her eyes faded slightly, a bright vivid blue showing through the cracks. "How long ago hath been and is… the mind that never meant amiss…" Amy recognised that as Verity's voice, a tiny little treble that shook as much as her body did. She looked like she was having a fit, her body shaking as if she was going to explode. She wouldn't last another minute on those wobbly pins.

"Squelch Amy. Squelch!" The Doctor yelled, and in that in second Amy pounded on the blue button, the energy walls dissolved into nothingness, Verity's eyes rolled back into her head and she fell sideways into the Doctor's arms.

Not as dramatic a conclusion this time as some of their other adventures. Defeating a monster by making it faint didn't seem particularly exciting. At least it was incapacitated. The plan had worked.

"What do we do now Doctor? Is she going to live, or is the gas creature going to fly out into me?"

He'd positioned Verity awkwardly into a sitting position, leaning her body against his, letting her head loll on his shoulder. He'd placed his large hands on either side of her face, his face screwed up in deep concentration.

"I'm going to make her remember everything. Everything that was done by the creature inside her, all the evil done in her name, all the time that has passed. The creature will still be inside, giving her life force, but you don't take orders from your blood do you?" The Doctor broke into a roguish grin. "Your stomach perhaps in your case. It'll make Verity the dominant personality inside this body hopefully. She'll be fully in control and no longer a danger-"

"_Unless the knowledge drives her insane_." It was a distant whisper which echoed inside her mind, the grating voice melancholy as it faded. Amy gave an involuntary shudder as it diminished leaving the faintest of buzzing and the lost memory of a laugh.

"It'll take a few hours to set. Been some cowboys in here, hundreds of synapses to realign, brain elasticity is a wonderful thing. She'll be as right as uh, _dead_ rain before long. You heave her to the TARDIS, yes? I'm going to shut this place down… leave a few clues… "

* * *

Amy volunteered for the job of 'keeping up with Verity'. She'd have loved to change her clothes (she hated every moment that she had to wear shoes with actual human skull on them) and the three important S's – Shower, Snack, Sleep – however, the Doctor had said that someone had to watch her. Make sure that nothing went iffy with the process. It was oddly peaceful in the TARDIS control room at night, with everything settling down for the night shift. The lights were dimmed, the panel hushed – the silence was not as welcome. After the events of the day, she now found silence an unwelcome, even threatening idea. Before today, she'd have loved a bit of peace and quiet, maybe even with a cup of tea. Sometimes the Doctor could be far too boyish and boisterous as much as she loved him for it.

There was nothing to distract her attention from the changes that were taking hold of Verity.

She'd been pale anyway, but a horrible marbleized texture was spreading across her skin. The colour had faded to a dull off-cream, the veins turning purplish and becoming far more obvious. When Amy had reached reattached the girl's communicator to her arm, it had been cold to the touch and was heavy, limp and lifeless. A redness crept in around the eyes and cuticles.

She was sat next to what now looked and felt like a dead body.

Verity's eyes suddenly flicked open. Amy jumped then looked fully into those eyes. She immediately wished she hadn't and involuntarily turned away, shielding her face.

She'd never seen eyes like that on anyone before. The blue had faded along with all traces of the humanity and personality that had existed within those orbs. A blank whiteness had replaced the colour, showing no feeling and no evidence of life. Those were dead eyes. Completely dead.

"What's wrong?" Verity asked. Oh, there was life in her voice, a beat, a rhythm, the whole works. Then she looked at her hands, her strange marbled hands, felt how cold they were. "What's wrong with _me_?"

* * *

**I put the bit about nanogenes in case anyone decided to ask me HOW COME HER NECK IS FIXED? Which no one did but I figured I'd cover all the bases. So Verity can get hurt but will be healed eventually as long as she has her comms device. She's a little bit invincable. Oh, the possibilities! Oh, the lazy writer's plot device, like a sonic screwdriver or a psychic paper! **

**Now I just have a mental image of Verity constantly being shot at by a darlek. For all of time. **

**Thanks for reviews and faves and alerts they are all welcome and much loved.**

**The silence refrences were purposeful. As were the crack ones in the previous chapter - maybe the psychograft creatures just went to another world... 'Why, RealSnowWhite, are you going to eventually bring them back in some kind of immense show down?' Yes. Yes I am. Because everlasting energy creatures are cool. **


	12. Chapter 12

The door of the TARDIS had been flung open, allowing the chill from space to permeate throughout the control room. It was dark and quiet, a rarity really; it was if the TARDIS herself had sensed the mood of her passengers and reacted accordingly. Verity was sat in the doorway, dangling her legs into the nothingness. Some strands of her hair flowed out into the vacuum and hung limply in the air.

"I'm sorry about the hysterics. I guess she must have woke you - but it's not really my fault." The words were cold and crisp, entirely unlike her previous timbre. She did not turn round to address him and there was a definite insinuation that she would not do so, that she refused to even look at him.

"I wasn't sleeping but yes, she was screaming fit to wake the dead… uh, sorry about that, bit of a touchy subject." The Doctor crossed the room and stood behind her, leaning against the door frame. The frostiness in her tone indicated it would probably be a bad idea to sit next to her. He had suspicions about the chilly vengeance of gas creatures.

"Yes, I guess it is now. It's strange to think that just yesterday I was a twenty year old girl, ready to live out her life. Today, I'm a thousand and twenty years old and my life is over." She spoke mulishly, her head bowed into her chest. "What are the confines of my condition?"

"Well, I suppose the main thing is that you're not really alive. It's more an impression of life. You are still a dead body and nothing can ever change that. As long as the creature inside is able to animate you, you won't decompose or ever stop being – perpetual motion in actuality. The nanogenes will always be there to heal any injury you sustain."

"Like a boot print is just an impression of a boot." Verity sighed and swivelled her head round to face him. However, she placed a hand across her eyes. Amy had described her eyes to him (after she had calmed down). The Doctor had seen a great many terrible things in his long life and dead eyes weren't one of them. It appeared that Amy's reaction had negatively impacted upon Verity. "So the gas creature will always be here inside my head? How do you know that I'll be control for the rest of my existence?"

"Yes. And I don't know. There may be times when it takes control again, probably at any time when your consciousness is undergoing stresses or the suchlike. Hopefully, the strength of your personality will keep it in check. You were able to subliminally perceive stimuli around you which suggests a strong mind…" The Doctor trailed off in the force of Verity's glare. Well, it wasn't really a glare as such. She was simply looking at him expressionlessly, as if his words were simply washing over her, not really making an impact.

"You let me die based on a hypothesis whereby I stay in control and don't end up slaughtering people for their life force because I have a strong _personality_? Are you aware of how flimsy this is? I should be feeling pretty angry right now. Why aren't I angry? Isn't it enough that you killed me, now I don't get to feel anything?"

"You need glands and things for emotions. Neurotransmitters and adrenaline and so forth. You can't feel anger anymore, just the memory of anger. All you have left is thought."

"Thoughts – yeah, got plenty of them." Verity kicked out her legs idly. "My head is full of memories that aren't mine. They're like dreams. People dancing, laughing, dying all around me. Impressions of sounds. The Skimmer's not ever going to go and she can sense everything around us. I would think I'm going to explode but I don't feel anything."

The Doctor sat down next to her, his own legs joining Verity's dangling over the ledge into space. The white of her skin shone unnaturally in the dark. "You're going to get used to it. The human brain adapts to the situations around it. Stick with us. Travel. I'm planning a trip to the museum of the-" He made to pat her hand in a comforting manner. She stared at his hand as if she couldn't remember what it was then laughed. A horrible little mocking laugh.

"Stay with you two? I can't even stand to look at you! It's because of you that I'm like this. Oh, Skimmer may have killed me long ago physically, but mentally nothing changed. My hopes and dreams were still alive, so I was still alive. You ended them for good. I have nothing left. I don't even have the option to die again. Drop me off somewhere. I don't care where. Just make sure that I never see you and your stupid blue box again."

* * *

Verity didn't know where she'd been dropped off. She didn't care. For the first time in her life, she was entirely free. She had been controlled by either her parents or an alien entity. Now there were no boundaries, no rules, and no restrictions. Nothing would ever prevent her, ever again.

She looked down at the grass under her feet. She'd never even been outside before. She could vaguely remember Mother telling her it wasn't safe. Not that she'd even been her mother. Lies. Everyone lied to her. She'd been such a lonely child, alienated from contact and care. She would need company and companionship. And money. She'd never thought of money before. How would she get it? There were people all around her, chattering away like birds in their funny ancient language. She would have to learn it, the Doctor had warned her. You shall find it terribly backwards. Verity didn't care.

The sun was beaming down on her and Verity beamed too. She held out her hands in the light, relishing the natural glow of sunlight. She laughed and twirled round, her skirts spinning madly, wind whipping her hair. The sky was a beautiful blue and she could hear birdsong. The sky – such an impossibility! She could explode with what could possibly be joy.

To be free was a wonderful thing.

* * *

**Unexpected I know. People have wanted Verity to travel with the Doctor and Amy and sent messages about it. Verity just sees the Doctor as the man who killed her. Of course, this won't be the last time you see her. I like Verity, and she won't remain the childlike sheltered girl she was when she was 'alive'. She's going to be very different when her and the Doctor meet again.**

**Thank you all for your continued support for this story, support which I hope will follow for the rest of the series of stories. The thirteen titles planned are:**

_**Hard Hearted Hannah - Ring a Ring o' Roses - Spellbound - City of Eternals **_**(which is not about the Eternals, I hasten to add.)**_** - The Exploding Boy - Every Night I Burn - Rites of War - A Reflection - Flight of the Amazons - The Eighth Day - Cabinet of Doctor Caligari - A Kiss in the Dream House - The Battle of the Two Queens**_

**They will have a connecting element, like the television series. I know it sounds ambitious, but I have two and a bit months before uni. Gotta fill the time or I'll go insane.**

**Hard Hearted Hannah should be up in a few days, so keep your eyes peeled please :) Le summary:**

**_With Amy and Rory off on honeymoon, the Doctor finds an old not-so-much-friend to keep him company before he begins talking to himself again. It isn't long before the two find themselves in the heart of a deadly danger - embroiled in the underworld of art theft in occupied Paris. Can they save the day and escape? Or will the TARDIS be captured by enemy forces, trapping them forever?_**


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